While Marcus Mumford draws much of his inspiration from literature, especially Shakespeare, his beautiful song “Dust Bowl Dance” is about the John Steinbeck novel Grapes of Wrath.

Mumford told American Songwriter:

“One conversation that I remember is when Ben (Lovett keyboards) and I were sitting with a piano and guitar and we were working at the skeletal verse and chorus for ‘Dust Bowl Dance.’ We were sitting and I remember he came with these chords and I said ‘Alright, let’s try to write something around that. Those are great chords.’ And I’d just finished Grapes of Wrath and was feeling pretty ‘wrathful’ (laughs). And I remember we talked about what the chorus should be about.”